You Look Like You're 16
by elin2002
Summary: Mimi has died and while Roger is going through her things, he make an interesting discovery...


**Hey Guys**

**So here is another Rent story for you, I hope you all enjoyed 'Eyeliner and Leather Pants' but guys I need some reviews. Let me know what you think good or bad. So I know some of you guys read my other stuff and I'm sorry I haven't really updated there lately, writer's block is a bitch especially when you have it on both of my favorite stories to write. I will be posting the next chapter of 'The Balancing Act' soon. So enjoy this one and let me know what you think.**

**Love,**

**Emily**

_**(I don't own anything it all belongs to Jonathan Larson.)**_

Roger hadn't planned on doing this today. But he knew he had to do it sometime. When Mimi had gotten sick he and Mark decided to move her in with them. So a lot of shoe boxes had ended up stacked in the corner of Roger's room. He grabbed a couple boxes and settled on his bed with them. He braced himself and opened one of them. He found old pictures of Mimi and Angel, some of Angel in drag and some not. Roger knew they knew each other for a while. While going through other boxes he discovered pictures of him and Mimi in various poses and a few of them sleeping. He also found pictures of the other people in the group, one of just the girls, Mimi, Joanne, Maureen, and Angel. He then found one of him, Collins, Mark and then one including Angel. Pictures of people from Life Support. But something in the fourth box, shocked him. There were various papers in the box including the one paper that changed Mimi's life, it was the paper that told Mimi she was HIV-positive. He continued looking through the papers and found something that if he hadn't already been sitting down it would have knocked him on his ass.

_**Memorandum of Birth**_

_**State of New York**_

_**City of New York City**_

**Date of Record**: November 20, 1973

**Name**: Maria Amelia Marquez

**Date of Birth**: November 17, 1973

**Mother's Name**: Lourdes Maria Marquez

**Father's Name**: Robert Enrique Marquez

**Registrar**: Michael Dean

"Wait this can't be right."

"What can't be right?" Asked Mark who happened to be near by and heard Roger.

"Huh, oh I found Mimi's birth certificate and the year of birth is wrong."

"What do you mean, it's wrong. Those things are usually correct."

"I know but according to this Mimi was born in '73. Mimi was 20 when she died, which means she would have to been born in '70."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, math may not have been my favorite subject in school but I still did really well in it."

"Roger this isn't good if she was born in '73, that means when you first got together she was..."

"16...shit!"

"Alright before you jump to conclusions,what made you assume she was 19 when you met?"

"She told me she was. I told her she looked 16 and she interrupted me and said she was 19. God no wonder her parents looked at me like I was crazy at the funeral. When I spoke I said that she shouldn't have died at 20 and how I was 24 and should have gone first."

"This is going to sound strange but why don't you call her mother before you label yourself a pedophile."

"Okay."

Roger got off his bed and went into the living area of the loft to the phone, he quickly found Mrs. Marquez's number in the phone book Mimi had made for them to keep there.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Marquez?"

"Yes?"

"Hi, this is Roger Davis. I was..."

"I know who you are."

"Right, I was um, going through some of Mimi's stuff and I came across a bunch of pictures and things. I didn't know if you were interested in seeing them or I don't know having them?"

"Roger don't get upset, but is she high in them?"

"Most of them yeah."

"You keep them, I have pictures where she isn't. You understand I just don't want to see my daughter like that."

"I understand, but just so you know she was clean her last 6 months."

"Thank you for telling me that."

"You're welcome, um there was one more thing. I found her birth certificate, and I think there's an error on it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well it says her date of birth is November 17,1973."

"It is. Why, what did you think it was?"

"Well I knew it was the 17th, but she told me she was 19 when we met." Said Roger.

"Oh god."

"Mrs. Marquez I really didn't know she was only 16. I'm not that kind of guy. Heck I didn't leave my place for a year. I am so sorry."

"I believe you Roger, honestly you aren't the first person she lied to about her age. It was one of the reasons she didn't live here anymore. She got involved with the drugs, and then she met a guy and lied about her age to him. When Robert, her father found out he made her stop seeing him, but then one night she was gone. We tried looking for her, but you know when she didn't want to be found, good luck."

"Yeah, I know how that goes we looked for almost a month before Maureen and Joanne found her in the park."

"And I'm grateful to you kids for finding her. Roger I want you to promise me you'll keep in touch, if anything happens to any of you please have someone call us and Robert and I will be there."

"We will, thank you Mrs. Marquez."

"You're welcome Roger."

"Well I'll let you go, thanks for clearing everything up."

"No problem, have a nice day, Roger."

"You too, bye."

"Bye."

Roger hung up the phone and looked at Mark who was sitting on the couch.

"So?"

"She was 16, when we met."

"Oh wow, so how did her mother take it?"

"Well apparently her mother knows about Benny. I feel a little better knowing she lied to him too. That's it I'm carding everyone."

"Or just don't light any candles." Said Mark jokingly.

"I'm going to the roof."

"Whatever you do don't jump."

"I won't." Roger opened the loft door to Collins standing there.

"Hey."

"Hi." Said Roger walking by him.

"What's his issue today, his hairdryer break?" Asked Collins.

"No, he started looking through Mimi's shoe boxes, and found something interesting, called Mrs. Marquez and she confirmed what he found."

"What did he find?"

"Her birth certificate. Remember how we used to tell him he had to be careful or he'd end up with a couple kids or he'd end up with someone underage."

"Yeah, oh damn. Angel was right."

"What?"

"I thought it was just the meds they had her on, but she made a comment one night after Meems left. Angel said that she needed to tell Roger the truth, and when I asked about what she said Mimi was only 16, I laughed cause she fell asleep right after. And I'm still convinced there's little Roger and Rogettes running around, because let's face it Roger was a male slut before April, and little time during."

"I agree, but until they come knocking we can't be sure."

"Well I'm going to go up and make sure he doesn't jump, otherwise stopping him during withdrawal was pointless." Said Collins.

"Just make sure he knows he's not a pedophile." Said Mark.

"I will and if any little kids show up tell them Daddy and Uncle Collins will be right back."

"Yeah, Yeah."

Collins left the loft and headed up to the roof to have a talk with Roger.

"Hey Rog." Said Collins light a joint while Roger smoked a cigarette.

"Hey Collins. Sorry about before."

"It's okay, I'm used to your asshole ways, but just be nice when your kids show up."

"Oh my god, I don't have any kids." Said Roger with a laugh.

"That you know of."

"Whatever, so what did you come up here for?"

"Mark told me about Mimi, well actually Angel told me a couple days before she died, but with all the meds she was on, I only took half of what she said seriously at that point. So you never knew she was 16 or 17?"

"I made a comment when we first met, but she denied it and said she was 19. I was more worried that she was around me and had smack in her pocket, and also I was too busy staring at her ass to notice."

"Roger you did nothing wrong but take someone at their word. If she had told you the truth what would you have done."

"I don't know, probably told her we could be friends."

"Roger you did nothing wrong, this is on Mimi. She lied, about numerous things. But this is on her."

"Okay."

"Good now that I stopped you from making a pancake of yourself, lets go back downstairs."

"Okay, you know I wasn't going to jump."

"I know."

Roger and Collins went back downstairs, and Maureen and Joanne were coming up the stairs.

"So when you called Mimi's mom, what exactly did she say?" Asked Collins.

"That I had nothing to worry about, and that it was Mimi's decision to lie and that I did nothing wrong."

"Then stop beating yourself up." Said Collins as a knock came on the door. Collins shot Mark a quick grin and Mark had to hide his behind his coffee mug because Roger was looking at him. "Rog why don't you answer it."

"Fine." Roger walked over and answered the door, and found Maureen and Joanne on the other side.

"Hi, Honey how are you?"

"I'm good, found out some interesting news today. But other than that good."

"What happened did you have a doctor's appointment?" Asked Joanne slightly alarmed.

"No, um I was going through some of Mimi's boxes and I found her birth certificate."

"Yeah, so?" Asked Maureen.

"She lied to all of us."

"What do you mean she lied?" Asked Joanne.

"I mean she lied, Mimi lied about her age."

"How old was she?" Asked Maureen.

"16." Mumbled Roger.

"She was how old?" Asked Joanne.

"She was 16." Said Roger clearly.

"Are you serious?" Asked Maureen shocked.

"She was 16 when we started dating."

"Did you know?"

"Maureen, if I knew do you think I would have started a relationship with her? I didn't even want to start something when I thought she was 19."

"Wow, did anyone else know?" Asked Joanne.

"Angel did but she didn't tell me until a couple days before she died, and even then I thought it was the meds talking."

"She never mentioned anything?" Asked Joanne again.

"Nope, I swear if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any. First all the shit with April and now Mimi. What do I have to do to get a normal girlfriend around here!" Said Roger progressively getting louder as he talked.

"I don't know, but Rog don't let what happened with April and Mimi stop you from trying to find love. Those girls chose that life. _They_ decided to lie to you. You did nothing wrong. Don't let them stop you from living again. Don't ruin the progress you made, besides you're going to have to find a good step-mother for your kids when they start showing up."

"I'm not going to. But I just don't get it. What did I do, besides the drugs that was so wrong. All I did was try and love them. And what do I get, a smack addiction, HIV, and two dead girlfriends." He said breaking down into tears.

"Oh honey, you'll be okay. You did nothing to get the hand you were dealt, but you've started to over come that." Said Maureen as she hugged him.

Roger cried for another 15 minutes on Maureen's shoulder. They hadn't seen him like this in a while. Mark sometimes heard him at night but it was rare.

"Maureen can you do me a favor and go through her clothes and just donate everything, I don't want anything." Asked Roger.

"Of course do you want me to do it now?"

"If you want to, if not it can wait."

"Why don't you sleep on it tonight and if you still feel the same you call me and I'll come over tomorrow morning and you and I will go through everything, I just don't want you to regret anything once you've come down from the drama." Said Maureen running her fingers through Roger's hair. They had always had a strange relationship, but no matter what they were there for each other, and it was moments like this that cemented that for their friends.

"Okay."

"Don't worry, you did nothing wrong. And I'm going to keep telling you that for as long as you need me to." Said Maureen.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Night came and Roger headed to bed, he thought about what Maureen said and decided that it was time to get over the hand he had been dealt, and go on living.

Maureen came over the next day and together they bagged up all of Mimi's belongings, and in a strange turn of events he found some of April's stuff too. The two women's clothes meshed together in bags and were brought down to the local Salvation Army store, they didn't stick around to see if they were accepted, they just dropped them off and then Roger headed to Brooklyn, for a Life Support meeting.

The group went around with the usual introductions and then Paul asked who wanted to speak first. Roger raised his hand.

"Roger."

"Um, I found out that my girlfriend lied to me, through our entire relationship. And today I finally let go of somethings."

"What kind of things?"

"Her clothes, other things, and while I was packing those things with my friend I found stuff left behind of April's. So we tossed those too. I'm looking for a fresh start I guess."

"Good for you, how's the music coming?" Asked Paul.

"It's going, as in out the window." Said Roger with a laugh.

Roger stayed at Life Support and then headed back to Alphabet City with Collins and Mark. Where he was going to start the next phase of his life.


End file.
